learn to rock on dreamcast

let me ask you something. haven’t you ever wanted to build your very own guitar amp out of an old video game system? of course you have. well now you can start out with the dreamcast guitar amp. basically, it’s pretty easy, doesn’t require any soldering, and takes a lot of patience.

if you dare attempt this rockin project, read on.

ok, so you’re brave enough. you will need the following to do this project:

allright cowboy, so the reason why I did this? well my poor dreamcast stopped reading discs and i wanted to play my games so we had a falling out. it’s really a shame. so i decided i’d turn it into a portable guitar amp. it’s pretty simple to do this, so just follow along.

removing the guts

begin by unscrewing the shell of the dreamcast to seperate the lid from the bottom. then swat your cat away. you’ll now be able to unplug some stuff like your cd-rom drive and modem (by the way, try starting up your dreamcast with no cd-rom one last time

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35 thoughts on “learn to rock on dreamcast”

Of all the things to simply duct tape an amp inside of, why a Dreamcast?

And why not build a speaker into the CD part so that you can open the top and it will act as a sound reflector? That way you get cooler integration for the trouble you’re going through to mod something.

~Why not build it, but leave the Dreamcast guts in? I’m pretty sure It’ll all fit with a little work. Who uses the third and fourth controller ports anyways?……oops did I just make my lack of friends disgustingly aparnt?

It was a good idea but it is kinda lame because the dreamcast doesn’t work. You may as well just use the amp alone. If you wanted to make something stylish you could take a converse allstar, pull out the metal holes in the side, and wire it all up in a shoe… sure you can’t wear it but that way you can still play dreamcast.
I think your project is a 6 out of 10.

If that dreamcast worked your going to hell.(a way to do this that would rock would be in software but hey thats not going to happen)(oh shit now i have a idea)(guitar->small preamp->analog stick in->homebrew software->rca out)now if only i had a guitar to make this worth my while.

You people are too rough on him… Geez! Sure it’s simple, but not all hacks have to be complex and tedious to do. He simply had a dead dreamcast, and instead of chucking it into the trash, he now has a neat conversation piece. I mean look at it, it’s pretty cool seeing a guitar hooked up to a dreamcast where the controler normally plugs in.

He shouldn’t stop there though. Why run it off 9V battery when it isn’t that portable to begin with? He should install a 9V power supply, or use a wall wort and make a jack on the back. I would really play around and add a lot of stuff since you really have a lot of internal space. Distortion effects, lights, headphone jack, ect….

Okay integration and idea. If it stopped reading discs, just replace the mechanism. There’s too much trouble having bored people with x amount of duct tape gutting out of good things, use screws and a Dremel tool.

7/10 for idea
3/10 for (current) results

Like #11, there should be loads of effects and some sort of covert switch; otherwise, try to integrate a tube amp and some of the former Dreamcast’s parts (fan to cool, power supply, etc.) If needed, the battery should be located where the modem/broadband slot is located, just gut that out or find a cover for it, all for convenience.

This makes me sad :(
But perhaps it has inadvertantly spawned several intriguing alternatives; sound production devices/instruments based and built entirely from a device’s original components – I think it’s called.. hardware hacking? :)
Creativity aside, a dreamcast-amp is still a neat idea. This has just been poorly implemented.

hey man it is a neat hack and all. you saw an opportunity to do something cool out of something less cool and you did it. thats what hacking as all about, but i don’t think this is worth a day at hackaday. if i posted every case mod i did this site would be boring. i think of this site as a place to come and check out the high end hacks, and simple case mods don’t cut it sorry.

Somebody here with way more skill than me should try to make an amp using a Dreamcast’s (or other system’s)innards–maybe like that other Josh said way back in post 10–instead of just complaining about the level of this particular hack. Then, they should have THAT hack ran on hack a day! Yes… that would be waay sweet.

There are a billion case mods sites out there. Lets not make Hackaday one of them. The Altoids series of hacks are interesting because there is usually some building involved. This is just taking one thing and putting it in the case of another. Boring. He didn’t even put the plugs from the controller around the guitar plug, then it would at least LOOK like a legitimate Dreamcast controller. I thought this was some kind of bemani thing when I looked at it.

No way in hell my DC is croaking for that. Although my Xbox stopped reading discs after I removed the DVD drive [Who woulda thought?] So now the whole left side is empty. But an amp wouldn’t be a good addition to a nicely hacked xbox. I think if anything I’d add a router so that instead of the DVD tray I can hook up for some multiplayer. :)

i appreciate all your comments and feedback. i like some of the ideas you’re having. especially the one with having the speaker in the CD-ROM drive. Also, maybe some lights and other cool things would be cool. I’d love to hear what you’d like and then I can bust out a version 2 that will please you all.

My dreamcast stopped reading discks aat one point, and kept resetting rather frquently. I ripped it apart, and apparently there were 6 power pins that needed poking. I poked them, put it back together, and proceeded to play PSO for 6 hours straight. Without a hitch!

Though if the GD reader unit’s bust properly, you could always just get on eBay for a working one… I’d have three DC’s by now. But I don”t have uses for them tbh… :(

nice hack but could have put more effort into it with making it look nice and there is no volume or tone controls whats with that ??
on more thing why not try and add built in FX that are activated by pressing on the power button to change FX and holding in with foot to use or something along that line !
and one more thing why not strip the controllers rubber tubing and put over your lead for your guitar !
and maybe you could add a bigger battery cause there was heeps of room left in that DC !
overall it was a good hack i would give it a
7/10 for the concept and a 5/10 for the actual prsentation as you could make it look better !
i also recently mad esomething similar with a old CD case (the ones that hold like 50 CD’s)